I set some really ambitious 2017 goals. In an effort to keep myself accountable, I’m sharing my monthly progress here on the blog.
Reach five figure monthly blog page views
My monthly blog page views for December 2016 were 3,093 views. To reach 10K visitors by the end of December 2017, I need to increase my page views by about 570 per month. My January 2017 blog page views goal was 3,663 views. My January 2017 blog views total was 5,561 views.
The huge traffic spike about two-thirds of the way through January is from a couple of pins for this post that had a fantastic weekend and then a few very solid days. It’s the biggest traffic spike I’ve had on this blog thus far, and it’s the reason more than half of my blog post views from this month were from that post. The traffic spike also makes it look like the rest of the month I had no traffic. In reality, I averaged 80-130 views per day in January.
Needless to say, I’m so happy with my blog page views in January. This total far exceeded my expectations for the month. It’s significantly higher than my February goal. However, the huge jump in views has meant lower average session duration, higher bounce rate, and a very high new sessions percentage. I’d like to see improvements in all of those figures before I see even higher views. We’ll see how it goes for February.
Reach 2,000 Pinterest followers and 1,000 Instagram followers
My projected social media figures for January were 1,255 Pinterest followers and 465 Instagram followers. My actual January 2017 figures were 1,255 Pinterest followers (crazy, right?) and 473 Instagram followers.
In my goals post, I talked about my four primary social media strategies for 2017, which are as follows.
- Participating in Facebook blogging groups.
- Using Boardbooster and adding new pins weekly.
- Using Later to schedule Instagram content in advance.
- Commenting on non-follower Instagram accounts daily.
Overall, I’ve been pretty happy with these strategies and the growth I’ve seen thus far. Not only did I meet my follower goals for the month, but I’ve seen increased engagement and reach on both platforms. I know there’s some controversy about the usefulness of the Pinterest analytics. But I’m going to show my January Pinterest analytics so you can get an idea what sort of impressions I’m getting with my social media strategies and this number of followers.
Finish all major home painting projects, home framing projects, and other major home organization projects.
My home projects goal is my one goal that was a total wash in January. I did order a few more throw pillow covers for my office, but that’s literally the only progress I made. I mentioned in this post that this month, Jake and I were both sick. I also had a week of jury duty call, I had to work on our Milwaukee house in between tenants, and I was scrambling to finish several components for the adoption home study progress. Most of the month, I had zero extra energy for routine home tasks, much less major home projects. I’m always hesitant to say that I hope next month will be a little more normal. What month is ever completely normal, right? Regardless, I hope that I’ll be able to make some progress on this goal in February.
Finish editing, exporting, and backing up all of my 2015 and 2016 photos.
To finish out all of my 2015 and 2016 photos by the end of 2017, I need to work through about 1,200 photos per month in addition to editing 2017 photos. My starting total for 2015 was 5,900 photos, and my starting total for 2016 was 8,500 photos. My totals for the end of January were 5,230 2015 photos and 8,160 2016 photos. I feel a little shy of 1,200, only because I wasn’t keeping close track on this goal. I could have pushed to get through a couple more folders. Live and learn, right? I do have a few in progress folders from January, but I’ve edited the majority of the photos already. I take far more photos in the warmer months of the year, so the more I can do to get caught up this time of year, the better.
Read 30 books.
In January, I listened to Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman (solid), The Only Pirate at the Party by Lindsey Stirling (amazing, she’s one of my heroes), Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (some really funny stories, but not my favorite overall collection), and Caddy for Life: The Bruce Edwards Story by John Feinstein (solid). I’m also 95% of the way through reading Rescue Road by Peter Zheutlin (great, but a tough read) and halfway through listening to Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers by Nick Offerman (a bit inconsistent, but solid overall). To meet my goal, I need to read/listen to 2-3 books per month, so I knocked this one out of the park for January.
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How are your 2017 goals going?
If you wrote a goals update post for January, leave a link in the comments!
I am still trying to figure out all this stuff and you have broken it down and help. Great that you shared your goals.
I’m so glad to hear it, Candy!
Wow! You’re off to a wonderful start for the year! Congrats!
It’s interesting to see your blog strategies written out, thank you for being transparent. I’ve been struggling with Instagram lately, but my blog views have been increasing. It’s interesting!
Great work with the blog and social media goals! I need to set some goals! PS- Nick Offerman is from the town that I live in, haha!
Congratulations on all of your success! It is so well deserved. How do you like Instagram for blog engagement? I know that you take some awesome pictures, but some bloggers are not fans and prefer Pinterest. I was wondering what you would advise? I wish you all the best in your continued success!
Thanks, Brittany! Instagram doesn’t drive a lot of blog views, but it is helping me build my brand.
Wow! Go you! January was a successful month. You read enough to cover my goal too! 😉 I didn’t meet my reading goal – oops!
Looks like your doing well with your goals so far! Congrats on surpassing your views goal so significantly! This year and last year my January views were higher than December’s, which is surprising to me. I was really, really late getting my year’s goals together and just got around to setting them down this week, so I don’t have any progress to report yet!
Thanks! I often have better views in January than December, too. I agree it is somewhat surprising. I think people are just less busy once the holidays are over and have more time to get online again.
Nice!
I clicked on your Boardbooster link and started a trial. I’m using Tailwind now but know there are features of BB that TW lacks.
Great job on the goals. January totally rocked my socks 🙂
Awesome! Thanks, Carrie! I know, I wish Tailwind had BB’s best features or vice versa. At some point, I’m going to cave and get Tailwind, too. So glad to hear January went well for you, too!
Great goals Rose. Love how you got the Pinterest bang on goal. Xx